Two Moles

     One time a few years ago, I was sitting along the shore of a creek and marsh when I saw the short vegetation near my feet heaving and moving.  Slightly startled, I watched it for a few seconds when a pink, fleshy nose with several short tenacles emerged from the soil as if from a horror movie.  I quickly realized that the nose was that of a star-nosed mole, a very unusual little creature, but well built for its role in life.
     Two species of moles live here in southeastern Pennsylvania, eastern and star-nosed.  And, again, although they are oddly built, their bodies are perfectly constructed for their way of life in the ground. They have broad, scaled front feet and long, strong claws for digging tunnels through the soil.  They live in those protective burrows and there they find their food of earthworms and other kinds of invertebrates as they dig.  Both species are a little more than six inches long, weigh two to three ounces and have dense, grayish-black, soft fur.  Their eyes are small and can only perceive daylight or dark.  Their ears are under their fur to keep the soil out, but they have good hearing. 
     Females of each kind deliver one litter of young each year, with about four babies in each litter.  The youngsters are two inches long and hairless at birth, and dependent on their mothers for about four weeks.       
     The moles' best developed sense is touch, particularly on their snouts.  They can "visualize" their surroundings with their noses and determine what is edible.  Moles are beneficial because they ingest lots of insect larvae, like Japanese beetles, in the ground as they tunnel along.
     Several kinds of predators feed on moles.  They include the larger hawks and owls, mink, cats, coyotes, and, in the case of the star-noses, larger fish when that mole is foraging for food in water.
     Eastern moles live in the eastern part of the United States.  They prefer loamy soils for easier digging and live in woods, meadows and lawns, though they are seldom welcome on lawns because of the little hills they make in the turf.  However, their diggings allow air and oxygen into the soil, which is important to the health of vegetation.  And rain water follows mole burrows into the ground.
     Star-nosed moles live in low, moist habitats in the northeastern part of the United States and southeastern Canada.  Their fur is water-repellent, an adaptation to their damp habitat.  This type of mole can swim and often forages for food on the bottoms of streams and ponds, as well as on nearby soil.
     Although both of these kinds of moles are unusual in build, the most bizarre feature on the one mole, of course, is the star nose on the mole species of that name.  The star is composed of 22 fleshy, movable appendages, or rays, that ring the nose and are sensitive touch organs.  They may look weird to us, but they serve the same purpose as our finger tips.  And those 22 rays are in front of the body to sense things just as the moles approach those objects in the ground or water.      
     Moles are interesting little animals, mainly because of how their bodily features have adapted to their specific niches.  They deserve our respect and should not be killed just because they make tunnels and hills on some lawns.  And they eat harmful beetle grubs that could cause more damage than the moles themselves do.